Month: April 2020

We’re weathering the CV19 storm… and we need your help to do it.

UPDATE: Thanks everyone, this was a huge success and we’re stoked to have welcomed so many of you to the Starling family. Bikes will be shipping as soon as we can!

As you all know, the Corona Virus situation is very serious.

We’re doing everything that we can to get through it as best as we can. Where possible we’re working from home.

And when we need to it’s a short ride to the workshop where we can happily work in isolation.

However, our tubing supplier and powder coater are both now closed. We’re also not comfortable shipping frames with couriers for the moment. We can remove the need for a courier to visit, freeing them up to deliver critical supplies where they are needed.

We can continue to build with what tubing we have in stock, but that’s not an endless supply.

As such we won’t be able to supply any frames to new customers for the moment.

But that won’t be forever.

And because that won’t last forever, there’s some good news.

We are able to keep producing frames (or taking pre-orders when our tubing supplies run out) and we’ve got a special offer for you guys.

Buy a Swoop, Murmur or Twist frame now and pay a 25% deposit to receive:

• Free custom colour option (worth £125)
• 10% discount

We’ll deliver the frame as soon as we’re able to start building frames, powder coating and shipping again.

In addition, for a limited time, we are going to offer custom geometry on our Swoop, Murmur and Twist frames. Reach, head angle and seat tube length will be available as custom options.

Again these bikes will be offered with free custom paint and 10% reduction.

Finally, I have one Sturn swingarm waiting for a front end, I’m sure I can work out a discount on this.

Just to be clear, we can’t guarantee a timescale for this. We’ll keep building till our tubing runs out and we’ll start painting and shipping frames as soon as we’re able. But, there are no promises when that will be. But, if you order first, you’ll get your frame first.

So in summary:

• Standard sized Swoop, Murmur or Twist frames, £1590 (inc. VAT).
• Custom sized Swoop, Murmur or Twist frames, £1960 (inc. VAT).
• One Sturn for ‘special price’.
• All with free custom colour option.
• 25% deposit (non-refundable), then payment before delivery.
• To be delivered when the Corona Virus allows.

If you’d like one, we’re taking orders through our web-shop right here.

Starling Cycles challenges you to flip your understanding of mountain bike design with the all-new Starling Tellum.

The Tellum is a ground-breaking, industry-shaking full suspension mountain bike… with a difference.

It takes the scalpel-precision of a fast and manoeuvrable 27.5” wheel and places it upfront. Then, adds the blunt force of a tough, hard-hitting 29” wheel on the rear. The bike is made with no geometry compromises and built around Starling’s fast, compliant and simple steel single pivot frames.

The Tellum was born out of Starling founder Joe McEwan’s constant hunt for answers to the question of how we can go faster and have more fun on our mountain bikes. Having built the Starling Twist, a traditional Mullet bike, Joe questioned whether his understanding was correct.

“I think I was misled in the way I applied the science” says McEwan. “I started from a clean piece of paper again and thought ‘how do we properly do this?’”

“I have talked a lot about gyroscopic stability, the forces that keep a wheel in-plane, and how this is the only significant difference between 29” and smaller wheels. A bigger wheel is more likely to stay in-plane and not get deflected off line, it is also more stable when leant over in a corner. It is these factors that people translate as “better at carrying speed”. But conversely, they also make the wheel harder to be manoeuvred in and out of line choices.”

“With the Twist I took the industry standard mullet solution and applied the wheel stability science, concluding it was better to have a big front wheel for tracking, and a small rear wheel for manoeuvrability. Essentially applying science to a pre-existing solution.”

“With the Tellum, I took a different approach, if we start with the science, what solution do we end up with? What we want is a manoeuvrable front wheel, allowing it to be moved in and out of line choices, picked-up and put where we want – after all the front wheel is where steering occurs! The rear wheel then just follows on. If the rear wheel is stable it just trucks on and keeps the speed, there is no need for a manoeuvrable rear wheel.”

“The solution, the Tellum, just works. The science is right, the bike is right!”

“I hope that my approach inspires the bike industry to flip their established notions of bike design and look at how they can do things differently. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a World Champion on this sort of bike soon?”

So… Was it an April Fool?